TFHS Codex
by Octo8
Summary: This is supposed to become a codex of various biological and cultural features of the different sapient races in the ME universe as per the TFHS 'canon'. Mostly, it's an exercise in worldbuilding without much relevance to the story.
1. Introduction

**TFHS Codex of the Galactic Species**

Another addition to the TFHS 'family' of fics, this will be a codex of sorts for the universe, giving biological and cultural details for the various species of the galaxies. While there strictly speaking is no need for it, I have at times established an alternate canon, especially of course in the case of how the quarians look, and besides, worldbuilding is fun. Also, it is easier to work off of a consistent standard of how people look and how they work and function.

Nonetheless, most of this codex will consist of ridiculously obscure points and high-grade world building nerdery, without much actual relevance to the story. Also, like the in-game codex, it isn't strictly necessary to read it: All information actually necessary to understand the story will be revealed in the story itself.

This codex will only cover the biology and culture of species, and not events, weapons, vehicles or anything else of that sort, at least not for now. Also, it will be far more unordered than the in-game codex. The various chapters will all have a single species as topic, and will practically only be lists of bullet points, though some of those are quite long. This is necessary, because I will most likely constantly edit chapters to add in new information - though already written informations stands and will not be retconned. Or, at least, I'll try to have it be that way.

Also, some points will be slightly silly, or I may not have the necessary knowledge to present them in a 'professional' formulation, or I might simply feel like commenting some stuff. Hence, parts of the codex will be written in the form of comments by me, which will be in italic and surrounded by [ ] parentheses.

Naturally, given the story, the first chapter will be about the quarians, and it will be the by far most extensive one. To give a better orientation, comparison to how certain senses or anatomic specifics work in humans will be frequent, and will be repeated every chapter anew, so that you do not have to look up the first chapter just to get those comparison values.

And no, this doesn't really cut into my writing time for the story itself, it's just something I do on the side when ideas hit me. So, have fun!


	2. Quarians

**Quarians**

**Anatomy**

-While quarian eyes do have irises, they are not visible due to a protective layer over them. This layer helps protects the eye from storms, especially sandstorms, which were frequent in the plains where modern quarians first evolved.

-While the effect is somewhat increased by the helmets quarians have to wear these days, quarian eyes are actually naturally luminescent. This helps them see better at lower light levels, but the effect is also lasts during the day (but will be less visible due to the sunlight).

-Quarian skin is pink. Not the sort of 'pink' sometimes used to describe the skin colours of 'white' humans, but an actual, intense pink. Small spots of slight colour variations and 'impurities', which visually are maybe best comparable to human freckles, are frequent. The skin is also generally somewhat rougher and slightly harder than human skin. This should not be overestimated, though: It is not like it is rhinoceros hide. However, quarian skin over their spine is in fact hardened to the point that it may be called so. This is a remission from quarian ancestor species, which had thick natural armour there.

-The quarian tongue is a bit longer and also a bit rougher than its human counterpart. Again, this should not be overestimated: We are not talking about gecko tongues or anything of that sort here.

-Like all species apart from humans, quarians do not have any hair. Instead, the upper side of their head is covered in overlapping, semi-transparent, multicoloured 'skin flaps', which are tightened between tiny strands of cartilage.

-Quarians possess quite distinctive ear analogues. In fact, those are the largest ear organs of all known galactic sapient species. Their form is comparable to clams pressed vertically to the side of their faces. _[Another good comparison would be the ears of the Vorta in Deep Space Nine. Non-Star Trek fans can image search them. Just imagine quarian ears to be slightly larger, less diagonal/more vertical, and a bit more in the front of the head. ]_

-Quarians possess no finger or toe nails. While their ancestors had claws, those have regressed in quarians and are now totally encapsulated in skin. The only sign of them is that quarian fingers have somewhat sharp, bony ends.

-While earth mammals all have one large belly button, quarians and their evolutionary family on Rannoch have several small belly buttons, as their umbilical cord has several end points in the growing foetus/baby.

**Physiology**

-Quarians have a higher metabolism rate than humans, with all the consequences of that. Examples are a 2.1° C higher average body temperature, and a higher heartbeat rate: While in an average, healthy human at rest the heart beat rate is around 75 beats per minute, in a comparable quarian it is around 105 beats per minute.

-As another result of this, quarians need about 160% the amount of food intake per body weight than humans do. They are obligate carnivores, though like all galactic races, before the war the quarians used vat-grown meat instead of animal husbandry. Nowadays, on the Flotilla, they mostly use artificial animal proteins etc. in their nutrition tubes.

-Quarian life expectancy before the war was at 150 years, but medical resources and even to some degree medical knowledge have taken a battering during the Exile. Currently, quarian life expectancy is at ca. 100 years. _[Which is lower than the 120 years life expectancy I assume for humans in this universe…]_

-Quarians need less sleep than humans, and have more choice in how to split it up. They can sleep either several short periods in a day, or sleep in one longer period. This is an evolutionary adaption to the very long Rannoch day that many species on that planet share.

-Quarian lungs are smaller than human lungs, but their blood is actually slightly more efficient in distributing oxygen. They typically breath flatter and more rapidly than humans and cannot hold their breath as long, but in everything else, including tolerance of low oxygen environments, those two factors cancel each other out.

-Quarian bones are on average softer and more flexible than human bones.

-Quarian biotics existed before the war, though as the species actually had the lowest rate of element zero contaminations in the galaxy, they were very rare even back then. Like in humans, element zero contaminations of foetuses produces three times the amount of dead or malformed foetuses than children with biotic potential. These days, with a population of just 17m, there are just not enough quarians with biotic potential for there to be a market for quarian implants and amplifiers. At any given time there are maybe a handful of quarians with biotic potential alive, and none of them will be implanted, which means none of them can be considered a true biotic.

**Senses**

-As with humans, the eyes are the primary sensory organs of quarians. Compared to humans, their optical range is shifted slightly to ultraviolet: They do not perceive red, but have an additional colour beyond purple. The human visual spectrum ranges from ca. 380 to 790 nm; the quarian visual spectrum ranges from ca. 300 to 660 nm. Like humans, they see three primary colours, but overall their colour vision is worse than in humans. While humans see better on the "red side" of the spectrum, with the optimum where yellow and green meet, quarians (like dogs and cats and most galactic species) see better on the "blue side" of the spectrum, with the optimum in deep blue. Overall, variance is not as large as in humans: Their vision quality is relatively constant in all colours.

Being descended from predators, quarians have a slightly worse area perception, but a considerably better motion perception than humans: They notice the slightest bit of movement around them, but have less colour solution. Their eyes are also considerably better at seeing at dark, comparable to cats: Quarians need only about one sixth the amount of light humans do (cats about one eighth). Having about the same shape of face than humans, the quarian field of vision is about the same.

-Quarians have a sensory organ for thermal infrared seeing (this is one function of the 'skin flaps' on their head), but it is very underdeveloped. It can send an "overlap" over the visual field, but only at very low ambient light levels and with very hot objects around - a simple warm blooded animal would not be enough by far. This is a vestigial sense that was much more potent among the quarians' ancestor species and now does not serve any purpose anymore.

-_[I have no idea how to measure the olfactory sense. Suffice to say, _the quarian olfactory _sense is underdeveloped - which means, it is about on the same level as the likewise underdeveloped human one. Just assume a rather similar structure.]_

-Quarians have a more varied but less potent sense of taste than humans. That is, they can differentiate more than the classical four to six human tastes, but they need higher concentrations of it. Instead of one "poison alertness" taste (bitter in humans), quarians have two, one that signals danger of poison and one that signals 'no nourishment'. They also have a counterpart to the sensation of sour: Where sour signals 'acidic', that sense signals 'very basic'. Various meat-based tastes that would fall under 'salty/hot' or 'umami' among humans are divided up between, depending on who does the counting, three or four tastes instead.

Quarians have an even greater distaste for the sour and bitter tastes than humans, and an even greater fondness for the sweet taste, even though that is actually their least potent taste sense. In general, leaving aside issues of amino chirality, pre-war quarian cuisine would taste horribly over the top for humans: Too hot, too meaty, and especially too sweet. Mostly lacking bitter and sour, it would also taste horribly uniform to humans, even while tasting very diverse to quarians.

-The audio spectrum of quarians is shifted towards the ultrasound compared to humans. While humans mostly hear at a frequency between 30 Hz to 18 kHz, quarians hear at a range of 40 Hz to 42 kHz (for comparison: Dogs 70 Hz to 44 kHz, Cats 55 Hz to 80 kHz). The hearing optimum is not evenly distributed, though, so quarians have considerably more problems with the higher end of that area. On the other hand, those areas are _completely_ inaudible for humans. The potency of quarian hearing is quite large: On average, unevenly distributed over different frequencies, Quarians hear double as well as humans (for comparison: Cats four times as well). Yet they have a higher tolerance for loud noises due to their overdeveloped ears which can compensate for that: While the human tolerance limit is relatively constant at 140 db, the quarian tolerance limit varies between 155 db at higher frequencies and 175 db at lower frequencies. Quarians also have far better directed hearing than humans: They are far more able to hear where a sound comes from, with a far better accuracy. Different to most humans, they can even locate noise sources underwater. _[Well, except that nearly all modern quarians can't actually swim.]_

-The sense of touch is rather underdeveloped among quarians. An exception to that is their sense of skin pressure: Quarians can tell rather well _if_ they are touched _[fortunately: Or else poor Tali wouldn't feel Shepard through her envirosuit at all]_, but have difficulties sensing details.

-Different to humans, quarians use the same sense for balance and kinesthetics. It is one of their most potent senses. Again, cats are a great comparison. Nearly no quarian experiences fear of height or other forms of vertigo, and their movements are nearly always precise and on the target.

-Concerning the sense of thermal flow, compared to humans quarians have only a fourth the amount of warmth sensors per skin area, but about 90% the amount of cold sensors. _[Which means they do tend to feel cold a lot.]_

-It is ironic for a race of engineers, but quarians have a terrible sense of time. _[Or maybe they just had to become engineers because they really needed to develop clocks…]_

-Quarians have an internal pressure sense that takes over the function of several internal senses human have: It reports such things as fullness, suffocation, etc. On average, none of those feelings are any more or less potent than among humans, but they can be slightly more accurate at times.

-Quarians have a sense of gravity: They can feel where the gravity is coming from. Some Earth plants have a similar sense. It might sound somewhat useless in an animal, but the original benefit of that sense was to support the quarian sense of balance/kinesthetics. This sense is both a curse and a blessing in their time of exile: Untrained quarians have a far larger problem getting adapted to zero-G than untrained humans. But trained quarians can actually use this sense to orientate themselves when several sources of gravity are nearby, which may include the pseudogravity produced by mass effect fields. Hence, this sense can be helpful in repair or space missions around ships.

-Quarians also have an external sense of pressure, which senses air pressure. On Rannoch, quarians had a great instinct for what sort of weather would be upcoming. Naturally, this did not apply to their colonies at the time, were weather patterns would depend on different planetary factors, or the Migrant Fleet now.

**Reproductive anatomy:**

_[Yes, yes, I know… as I've said, I've just listed every silly point that came to mind ;) ]_

-Quarian men have no external testicles.

-Quarian men have some amount of deliberate motion control over their penis, but contrary to some urban legends, quarian penises are not, not by far, prehensile. _[[Turians or humans dating quarian men might still get squicked.]]_

-Besides their nipples, which are similarly placed than in humans, quarian women have remission of teats, which are located in a sort of circle on their breasts. Visually, they are look like little more than skin bumps.

**Reproduction and sexual dimorphism.**

-Quarian women are on average 3 cm larger than men.

-Nonetheless, quarian men still have, on average, more mass than women. This is compensated by women having a ca. 11% higher metabolic rate (for comparison, among humans men have a 15% higher metabolic rate). This means that in long term applications of strength men have the upper hand, while in short bursts of strength both genders are about the same, and women are the faster runners.

-This comes at a biological price for women, though: While among humans, women statistically live about 5 years longer than men, among quarians women statistically live about 4 years shorter than men. Also, both genders need an equal intake of calories.

-Historically/in evolution combat and hence leadership roles have _always_ been taken over by both sexes

-To compensate for loss of birthgivers that way, the quarian gender ratio is skewed 1.25:1 in female favour

-To compensate for that in peacetimes, the rates of homo- and especially bisexuality among women are rather high, while they are rather low (esp. compared to humans) among men.

-Quarian pregnancies typically last for eight months. Compared to humans, pregnancies are usually easier on the mother; especially births are less complicated due to the typically wide quarian hips. Nonetheless, before the war, quarians had managed to almost completely separate sexuality and reproduction, with the latter happening mainly via IVF and artificial uteri. Natural pregnancies happening all the way to childbirth were singular events. These days, there is not enough medical infrastructure left to maintain such a level of support, and artificial uteri are only used in medical emergencies anymore.

**Culture/Politics:**

-Clans are the basic unit of quarian society. They are always defined by blood: You cannot enter clans by marriage or adoption. Members of married couples always stay part of their respective clans, which makes marriages even _more_ of a pact between different clans than in other cultures which takes these things seriously. And there is no legal adoption in fact, though 'informal' adoptions are very common due to deadly nature of Migrant Fleet. However, the child cared for by others will always retain their name, and will always know who their 'true' parents and hence ancestors are. This entire attitude is of course a result of the quarian ancestor worship, which always means blood ancestor.

-Starting about 200 years before geth war, quarian society began a rapid social modernization: The rule of clans was weakened, civil administration forms emerged, old traditions and social norms became liberalized. The downside was that the unified quarian military, due to its neutral role as standing besides the clans, was an important factor in this modernization and got ever more influence. The development of the geth was part of the modernization process: The aim was a transformation of quarian society to a sort of utopia where no manual labour would be required anymore. Unfortunately, the military led that process, which was an important factor in starting the Geth War.

-The hardships of the quarian exile has led to a resurgence of clan power structures, but at the same time has even more so solidified the rule of the military, under martial law. Most of the old traditions and restrictions that have been given up in the modernization process have not been revived, though, as this could have led to conflict among the remaining quarians. Instead, the generic ancestor worship was introduced as unifying factor. Nonetheless, the various clans are again centres of power, and most ship are owned by a clan or a cooperative of clans. Despite martial law, those owners have the de facto power to name the ship captain, and the Admiralty Board overrules such decisions only very rarely. Ironically, the military is still a force of modernity even on the Migrant Fleet, since it is the power centre opposed to the traditionalist power of the clans.

-As a result, there are roughly three political camps among the quarians: The "Old Conservatives" want a return to the old ways before modernization: Rule of clans, rule of centuries old codices of behaviour, and so on. The "New Conservatives" want everything to stay as it is: Rule of the military, absolute power of the Captains, the pilgrimage, etc. The "Liberals" want to shift power to yet a third centre: Rule of the Conclave and the ship assemblies, greater individual rights for quarians and so on. Many Liberals idealize the pre-war modernization process, though, and are hence vaguely sympathetic to the military. Their main 'enemy' are thus mostly the Old Conservatives and the power of the clans, which means they Liberal faction is somewhat ineffective in trying to win over actual power for the Conclave from the military.

-The war/peace divide runs through all three camps, though in all three the pro-war party has a clear majority. There are very few pro-war radicals, though: The majority of the pro-war party _ideally_ would like to strike and wipe out the geth, but they do not _practically _demand to go to war right now as they know that this would be suicidal.

_[Tali's stances at the beginning of her pilgrimage clearly were in line with the New Conservatives, of which her father is one of the most important leaders. Under Shepard's influence she is now clearly tending towards a more liberal position, especially after her disappointment with her father and the Admiralty Board after the disastrous engagements on Freedom's Progress and Haestrom.]_


	3. Asari

**Asari**

**Physiology**

-Different to all other known sapient species, in which eezo nodules are _contaminations_, asari have eezo nodules as part of their biological body plan - it's genetic for them. That means that asari _need_ trace elements of element zero in their food. This is a given on Thessia, but nearly nowhere else in the galaxy: There is only a handful of other planets incorporating element zero into their biosphere, and none of those is located in asari space. This means Thessia has become the breadbasket of asari space, specializing in agriculture and exporting food to all colonies. Even so, most asari (as asari have been in space for over 2000 years, most asari live in the colonies, not on Thessia) need to take element zero tablets to supplement their food intake, especially pregnant asari and children. In adult asari, lack of element zero trace elements can lead to a lessening of biotic powers and some other side effect that are _mostly_ minor, but if foetuses and children do not get eezo, this will lead to rather severe long-term development deficits.

-About half the asari can slightly move the end points of their head tentacles, if with difficulty. The other half is completely unable to do so. This difference is largely, but not entirely. genetic, similar to tongue rolling in humans.

-Asari have a metabolic rate about 6% higher than humans. Their body temperature is 0.8° above human body temperature, and their heart beat rate for a healthy adult in a state of rest is 90 beats per minute (humans: 75).

-Despite this and their biotic powers, the amount of food asari need to eat is similar to what humans need, due to a more efficient digestion system.

-On the other hand, that digestion system also has drawbacks. Both the stomach and the bowel equivalents are actually smaller than in humans. This means asari have more trouble with hard to digest nutrients. They are hence typically picky eaters and need to spend much time on the preparation of meals. It also means they need food intake much more regularly than humans, but can eat less in a single meal. This combination has contributed much to giving them their 'fragile flower' image they have among some turians. On the other hand, while they are much quicker to become under-nourished than other species, thanks to various coping mechanisms in their body it deteriorates slower in such circumstances than would be the case in other species.

-Asari are omnivores, but they typically react better to plant than animal nutrition. This is reflected in asari cuisine, but that does not mean there are not some very carnivorous asari; there are. _[And those will get health problems, but hey, there are unhealthy eaters in every species]._

-Asari lungs are smaller than human lungs, but their blood is actually slightly more efficient in distributing oxygen. They typically breath flatter and more rapidly than humans and cannot hold their breath as long, but in everything else, including tolerance of low oxygen environments, those two factors cancel each other out.

-Asari live ca. 1100 years on average. _[Lucky bastards.]_

**Neurology**

-Like humans, asari have several nervous systems for different tasks. Different to the human 3, asari have 5. The system responsible for flight-or-fight and instinctive reactions is especially well developed, which explains the often phenomenal reaction times of asari Commandos.

-One of those nervous systems specifically connects memory centres and certain hormone glands. Among other things, it controls the body's reward system and asari feelings of familiarity. As a result, asari become particularly fine-tuned to the way a society they live in works, and instinctively adapt to it. This is probably a major reason why there have not been any major social changes in asari society in millennia: Overall, the asari are a very static people.

-There are some basic asari concepts that are neurologically anchored in their brains. Only about one or two dozen, depending on who does the counting, but it is a biological feature to be found nowhere else in the galaxy - not even among the rest of Thessian life. The three life stages of asari are among those concepts. That is one major reason why asari so often conform to the stereotypes of their life stage: It is not just hormones or bodily changes, it is also that those stereotypes are anchored in their brain. Socially most important, that is why asari instinctively follow Matriarchs, even when those are not physically present (e.g., connected to over the extranet). Since asari are sapient beings, they can go against their instincts, but it feels weird, uncomfortable and just plain wrong to them, and most of the time they simply do not have a logical reason to do so.

**Senses**

-Asari have a very broad visual spectrum, ranging from 290 to 980 nm (humans: 380 to 790 nm). They have no less than six primary colours (humans: three), though three of their cone cell types are underrepresented, mostly on the "red side". Their colour optimum is very much steeped to the "blue side"._ [Which… explains much about their culture.]_ Asari have good night vision, on a level comparable to quarians. Also, while their area and colour perception is phenomenal, they have a considerably worse movement perception than humans. This has led to the humorous comparison that for the asari, the entire world must look like a beautiful, colour filled and possibly expressionist oil painting.

-Asari have a better developed olfactory system than humans. On average, they may be able to smell about six times as well as humans, which is still pitiful compared to some Earth or Thessian animals. In addition, most of the time the asari brain blends out most of the olfactory sense, which has the advantage that the race is not as disturbed by foul smells as they would otherwise. Only when asari consciously focus on that sense does it reach its maximum.

-The asari have a comparably strong sense of taste. Concerning tastes, 'umami' and 'salty' is one taste for them, but they can differentiate between four 'sour' or 'fruity' tastes, plus 'bitter' and 'sweet', meaning they have more tastes than humans. Their sweet taste is one of their most potent taste senses, which means other species find asari candies to be disappointingly lacking, that is, undersweeted.

-Asari hear on a similar spectrum than cats: 55 Hz to 72 kHz (for comparison: Cats 55 Hz to 80 kHz, humans 30 Hz to 18 kHz), with their optimum only slightly tilted towards the lower side. That means most of what asari ears experience is far outside the human range. Asari ears are not quite as powerful as human ears, though: While for humans, the average hearing threshold is at ca 20 db, for asari it is at 25 db. They also have a lower noise tolerance: While for humans it is at 140 db, for asari it averages out at 125 db. On the other hand, asari ears are more accurate, and more able to spot single sounds even in a noisy environment. This means their music has to take extra care to build up a sound landscape.

_[-Asari have an excellent sense of touch, but I have no idea how to quantify that.]_

-Similar to quarians and different to humans, asari use the same sense for balance and kinesthetics - and similar to quarians, it's excellent, though not quite to the same extent.

-Even their sense of thermal flow is quite good, with double the amount of both warmth and cold sensors than humans, at a roughly equal balance.

**Reproduction**

-Due to using intensive mindmelds as a reproductive method, asari do not need and in fact do not have conventional genitals. They also do not have a permanent birth canal. They do have zones of heightened skin sensations, though, analogous to erogenous zones, which includes the breasts (also the end points of their waists and the underside of their head tentacles)

-Asari muscles are leaner than human muscles and more geared towards speed and endurance than strength.

-Asari usually become fertile at an age between fifty and eighty years, but in some 'late developers' this can take up to hundred-twenty years. Independent of this, sexual desires usually begin to arise rather consistently at an age between sixty and eighty years.

-Asari pregnancies last, on average, no less than 34 months. Before the final nine months, though, effects on the asari body are comparably small, and complications rather rare. During those last months, though, asari pregnancies can become just as problematic as human pregnancies, and natural births can be even more complicated. Nowadays, artificial uteri are in wide use, though in contrast to most other races, asari have not yet mastered artificial fertilization, since the mindmeld process is in fact not yet 100% scientifically understood.

**Culture**

-Asari typically only have one child at a time. Having more than one child in the house is rare to the point of potentially being a social talking point/minor scandal. Maiden having children is also rare, but far from unheard of: It usually happens when Maiden take a monogamous mate for life _[the mate's life, that is]_, which just happens to be very uncommon for them. The majority of Matriarchs do not bother with families or birth anymore, either, but enough do that a Matriarch with child is nothing unusual.

These restrictions explain why the galaxy is not chock full of asari yet: Since asari are fertile for nine centuries, and young asari move out of the house typically between sixty and ninety years of age, asari can start a whole new family up to ten times their life (though factoring in that most the time only Matrons have children, even very family-minded asari only do so three to five times). Added to that is the fact that their entire population, not just half of it, can bear children, meaning that a _single_ pregnancy per _lifetime_ per person is statistically enough to maintain population size. So, without these social constraints, asari population growth would be out of control, and even with them the asari enjoy healthy growth levels.

-The asari economical system can be described as syndicalist, at least in most of the Republics. Most businesses are cooperatives of various forms, usually worker/employee cooperatives. This goes especially for agriculture, manufacturing and personal services. Meanwhile, the area of finances and logistics that connects those businesses is often in the hands of the single city-states. The businesses operate is a relatively free, but regulated and social, market economy. Asari outside the Republics do not necessarily follow this model. Especially Ilium in the Terminus Systems is well known for its hyper-capitalist system and attitudes. There are also some more capitalist city-states even within the Republics.

-Facial tattoos are ubiquitous among asari, to the point that many outsider falsely think them to be a natural, genetic feature of the race. They are in fact just tattoos, but they are heavily encouraged socially: While it is acceptable not to wear them, asari without them are often seen as a bit uncultivated and dull. Since asari culture is essentially static and rather conformist, this holds true practically every generation anew.


End file.
